


borrowed clothes

by quydaoan



Series: Perfumare [1]
Category: Perfumare (Visual Novel)
Genre: Bittersweet, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Sharing Clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28287159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quydaoan/pseuds/quydaoan
Summary: reed/f!mc | sometimes the line between friendship and love blurs at the exchange of clothes
Relationships: Main Character/Reed (Perfumare)
Series: Perfumare [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072055
Kudos: 10





	borrowed clothes

“ _Oh, God forbids_ —”

Elowen’s exclamation tells Reed everything he needs to know about her current frustration even from where he stands at the other side of the apartment. He only ponders over for a second before a sly grin pulls at his lips and his feet stalk towards the bedroom. “What are you doing?” Without announcing his arrival, Reed leans on his door frame with condescension imbued in his every facial feature. 

It sounds redundant to ask when only moments ago, she asked to borrow something of his to wear during her stay and slinked to his bedroom. It isn't anything new for them to peruse each other's wardrobe every time they sleep over each other's place, but somehow, the act always has him feeling giddy with a bitter aftertaste every single time. 

“What does it look like?” She pokes her head out from behind his closet's door, her grumbling is accompanied by a scowl before she fishes out a familiar black sweater from the mountains of clothes he owns. “Why do you have this?”

Nothing about the sweater stands out to him from the first glance, but when her glare begins to burn, he has no choice but to take a better look at the sweater and tries to remember what is special about it. He has worn it before, once or twice, and if he remembered correctly, he got it from… _right_.

“You know why,” he shrugs with a self-satisfied smirk, unknowingly opens himself to a world of pain.

She tosses the sweater at his face, giving a tiny margin of time to catch it in his arms. When the fabric slides down from his head and gives him back his vision once more, he finds himself facing a glare rivalling the heat of potent lava.

“You borrowed and never returned!” Elowen adds on his explanation. “I’ve been searching for it since last month.” She snatches the sweater back from his arms, fully intending on retrieving the item this time.

“Why do you need a sweater that big anyway?” He asks before scuttle to follow her back to her excavation on his closet. “It fits me with room to spare.” The thought that it might have belonged to one of her exes sour his moods when it pops up by in his mind, but soon, it vanishes with her explanation coming along. 

“It is meant to be oversized!” She digs her hands into his clothes again, pushing irrelevant items out the way with the least amount of damage done possible, always takes the care to put those she doesn't need back in places. “I wear it to bed when it gets cold.”

After a beat of silence, Reed realizes that he needs to actually answer to continue the conversation. "Well, it's very comfortable," he points out dumbly, not knowing what else to say.

He ignores the rush of heat shooting straight down to his stomach and opts to leer at her with a teasing grin when she pulls out another article from underneath his clothing. “What did you find, _now?”_

The audible gasp coming out of her lips is one breath short of scandalous, and the look of contempt she shoots at him in the next moment has Reed confessed he might feel a little guilty for whatever act he committed unwittingly. “Why do you always get my favourite!”

Her favourite in question is a black sleeveless hoodie with worn materials and from how it looks, has seen a whole lot during the time it remains in her possession since he remembers wearing it only once. “Your favourites are always oversized… men-sized clothes, what else am I supposed to pick when I have to borrow yours during my stay?”

“I don't care!” She hugs both of the tops to her chest and proceeds to shuffle to the bathroom for a change of clothes. “Wear anything you want,” she grumbles before crossing the door, “just actually remember to return them.”

He laughs out loud when she slams the door shut behind her, not allowing the conversation to end with her getting the last words. “But cara!” Reed calls after her before retraces her trail to the bathroom. “You never returned anything you borrowed from me.”

His argument receives a dead silence from her and Reed knows better than anyone how perfect his shot landed on the target because there is no logical argument to that. Some of the clothes she previously borrowed from him now have become hers exclusively, and Reed had his share of complaints about that, too, but not once did he ask for any of them back. 

Pretty hypocritical of her to criticize him, while forgetting her own wrongdoings.

Finally, she yells out after a moment of scrambling for a response. “It’s different!”

He decides to humour her, leaning his back on the wall next to the bathroom to continue their verbal sparring. “Okay… _How?_ ”

“Girls don't have to return clothes they borrowed from their boyfriends,” she argues over the door, although her argument entirely misses the mark and leaves him scowling. Not that she has the chance to see that with the door between them.

“Am I your boyfriend now? You certainly don't treat me like one,” It isn't a question but a taunt, one she misses entirely while fumbling for a change of clothes at the other side of the door.

“Well,” she says, “a guy friend, a male friend?”

The separation of that one simple word has him huffing with irritation, but he won't relent in his claim for victory with this battle. “If I'm a _normal guy friend_ then you shouldn't steal clothes from me, don't you think?” He asks with a note of sourness, but whatever effect he hopes to achieve with that is entirely lost when she rips the door opens. His eyes immediately shoot down to her figure, getting an eyeful of the side of her chest where the hoodie cuts too low. At that moment, his loss for words concedes his loss in this battle.

“We are not normal friends, we are _best friends!_ Now, stop arguing with me and go prepare the popcorn,” with that said, she saunters towards the living room and plops herself down on his couch comfortably. Reed knows there is no point left for this argument, nothing else to accomplish except one final self-deprecating laughter before he proceeds the comply with her wishes.

She always pushes and pushes, and he knows one of these days he will stop bending to her will because there is a limit to how far he will tolerate before he snaps. But for now, he will remain in her good grace, only because he cares that much about her.

“Such a tyrant, dolcezza.”


End file.
